Ethical Egoism: CAN INDIVIDUAL ETHICAL EGOISM BE REFUTED?

Can Individual Ethical Egoism Be Refuted?

Iulia Veremiov
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Ethical egoism is a belief system based on the idea that an individual should always act in
his own self-interest. Some philosophers stated that there are major discrepancies between
ethical egoism theory and standard moral theories. Ethical egoism reasoning can be argued, in
case of cooperation between people, if everybody would only cooperate when they can achieve a
certain benefit from it, we would have for example a lower number of innovations, as some
investors wouldn’t take a certain risk, or charity causes would be neglected as some can see it as
an act that won’t give them a benefit.

G. E. Moore suggests that the theory of ethical egoism itself is contradictory, as it says
that I am responsible for my own good, and others can’t be responsible for it (Shaver Robert,
2019). Another question raised is: What are the moral boundaries of the ethical egoism, for
example if someone will consider that he needs to steal something for his own good, ought he do
it? Or shouldn’t this individual save a drowning man as it won’t give him any benefit? What can
we do when we encounter a conflict of interest between two individuals that ought to act for their
benefit only? In this case which of the interest should win? In case if two individuals want at the
same time the same thing that can be achieved only by one of them, who should win and why?

The theory of ethical egoism clearly can be refuted, it was proven by philosophers -
ethical egoism is an inconsistent and contradictory belief system. It denies altruism that has
completely different approach - of helping others by all means, whereas ethical egoism is based
solely on personal interest.
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References

Shaver, Robert, "Egoism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition),

Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/egoism/>.
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